Julie M.H.

In the two advertisements below there are children modeling clothes from GAP. The first is of a boy is wearing an goofy Einstein shirt wit the caption "The Little Scholar." The second of a girl wearing kitty ears and a logo sweater with the caption "The Social Butterfly." These ads are targeted towards parents who have small children who are most likely going back to school and need new clothes. Although there is little text in both these ads, both imply that these cloths will make your kid(s) more popular  and smarter in school. This can be seen in the girl's ad when it says, "Chambray shirts + logo sweaters are the talk of the playground" and in the boy's ad it says, "Your future starts here. Shirts + graphic tees = genius idea." I personally have multiple problems with this ad, the main one being that it is enforcing gender stereotypes on young impressionable children. The ad with the little girl implies that your popularity in schoo...

Happiness is a feeling that is under appreciated in this day in age. I'm happy when I don't have a lot of work to do, the feeling of being free from hard work and being able to do what I want when I want makes me happy. However, I am lucky enough to have a simple peaceful life unlike most other people in the world.  The National Happy Index is a great way to learn about world's happiness or lack there of. To measure the people's happiness, everyone must be accounted for regardless of gender, race or social class. Without looking at statistics I already know that most of the world is not happy. It is so easy to focus on negative things that we never stop and think about the happy things in life. The story "I have been called a Luddite" is an adorable short story about a man who is not fond in new technology but finds happiness is the simple things in life. In the story the main character narrates his trip to the post office to mail a letter. At the end he say...